Hi everyone,
Well, no “Beach Buds” just yet. A few of you thought I had lost all my pictures… no… I have just lost the program/software that gave me the ability to put them in the Ebay auctions the way I have for the last 22 years. I have no place to put my pictures and hold them until I want to use them and the templates for filling in all my information is what is gone now. I searched all morning for another photo hosting site I might use, but when Rebecca called, she told me she would do a little research this evening and try to find something like what I had… So, I decided to try listing the set on Ebay, using their format. It took me several hours to do as I wasn’t used to it and kept having to check it and make revisions. I finally got things the way I wanted it and decided to try listing it. I had it scheduled to go on tonight, but the only thing was it wouldn’t let me make it as an auction… it was listed as a Buy It Now and there was NO WAY to change it. I tried 3 times to get the button for “auction” to turn from gray to black and it never would, so I gave in and called Ebay…
The girl that was helping me, tried a few things and couldn’t get the Auction format button to turn on either, so I was stuck…so was she. She tried quite a few things and nothing was helping. Then she said, let’s delete the listing and we’ll try listing it again… sort of like a reboot… and we can reset things.” When she said “delete” it, I hesitated for a minute, and I said, “I won’t lose what I’ve been working on the last 4 hours will I?” She said, “No, it will go into the “inactive file” and we can manage it from there. So… I hit the delete button and when she said, “Okay, now go to your listing…it should be on the top…” and it wasn’t there… you should have heard her ask 3 or 4 times… “on the top”, “on the top row”… nothing… ZERO pictures there. She tried everything… having me go here and do this, and I finally gave her the item number and said maybe this would help. Nothing… She got off the phone for a few minutes and tried a few more things. It had vanished, probably never to return. She even said, “Oh, Jeanne…” and I knew it was bad.
When she came back after taking another few minutes off the phone, she asked if she could call me back Wednesday afternoon… she was going to get the specialty tech guys to work on it and find my listing. I don’t think it will do much good…that’s why it always says around “delete” buttons… MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING BEFORE YOU DELETE! I guess we’ll see, but I don’t have much hope and think I will have to start all over. If I had just left it alone and let it run as a Buy It Now, it wouldn’t have happened. But I needed to know what was wrong with that button, as I seldom do BIN listings. So, we’ll see… maybe those tech guys are really good!
Okay now, not to have to rely on a question, Elizabeth, down in Texas, sent me some wonderful pictures of a Ruby Red Fashion Friends 12″ Siblies doll and the WHOLE WESTERN ENSEMBLE she created.
These are the comments Elizabeth made on the blog yesterday… I added them here so you could make sense of them with the pictures… Get ready to be amazed!
Jeanne, I sent you my photos of the horse with the English saddle I made from thin black leather from my old wallet, and the Siblie doll wearing the Equestrian riding outfit, along with photos of the doll in her other outfits to go with this set. My grown daughter loved the set….her hubby videotaped her opening the gifts on his cellphone, and the first thing she said before she took the lid off of the Siblie Doll box was, “Oh….I have my own Siblie Doll!” She will save the set for a possible future Granddaughter she may have someday, and my daughter will share her love of horses with her. I told my daughter that if she only has a Grandson, Ruby Red sells a Boy-Siblie doll! By the time her Grandchild would be able to play with a Siblie, I may not be able to sew doll clothes or craft like I do now.
I had dressed the Siblie doll (Sunny) in the riding outfit when boxed and just tucked her purchased outfit into the box. The riding pants, jacket, and black riding hat were all made from separate 18 in. doll patterns which had to be reduced and tweaked a bit to fit the 12 in. Siblie. The tall black riding boots were made from felt with a long back-closure of velcro…all done by hand as I didn’t have leather that was super thin that I could have fed thru my sewing machine.
The cowgirl shirt/vest/skirt/hat and boots were all from a reproduced McCall’s pattern that sold for 35 cents back in the day! Found the pattern online, and it is for a 13 in. doll and only needed a bit of tweaking. I found that chamois cloth worked perfectly for the cowgirl hat and the short boots. The horse-print fabric for the dress was found at Hobby Lobby in the fat quarters section, and the solid resin horse (meant to be a fake wood-carved statue) came from there too. Had to fill-in places with air-dry clay, sand the horse, and painted him. The English saddle had 24 pages of photo instructions and took me two weeks to complete, along with the bridle/reins from yet a different pattern! Made an extra bridle and two lead ropes which are in the closet.
The closet is a converted Daphne’s Diary Advent Calendar which my daughter sent to me and it came as a “buy one/get one free” set. So I used the second one to turn into a wardrobe closet for the Siblie Doll!
I am missing the horse’s “company” as he sat on my work table for the entire time it took to make everything, so I purchased another horse from Hobby Lobby (I believe he was $16.99) and this horse will be painted to look like “Maximus”, the Palace horse from the animated Disney film titled “Tangled”! This film has always been a favorite of mine… for the animation of the horse, the storyline, the actors voices used for the characters. The horse’s actions and antics are so humorous…he really makes the film special. Who knows….I might even be tempted to purchase a blonde Siblie someday to make the “Rapunzel-like” long dress!
Isn’t that whole set just incredible? Elizabeth’s daughter has the sweetest mama! Elizabeth, you are amazing!
Thanks for sharing your talent with us!
See everyone tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Oh Jeanne, not what you need! We certainly do take for granted when things are going smoothly, but when they don’t………. I was one who thought you lost all of your pictures, and just couldn’t imagine how THAT would have been, but this is bad enough, if you can’t get on EBay to sell anything! Is your Etsy shop affected too? Hopefully Rebecca can help you out of this mess!
Elizabeth!! My goodness, , are you sure you didn’t make the Siblie too? That horse is just beautiful! The clothes, exquisite! The bridle and saddle, amazing! You certainly do pour so much of your heart into the things that you make! I really like that last dress with the horse figures! Wherever do you find material like that? What a lucky dajghter you have!
I had to go back and check, but she said that the horse-print fabric was a fat quarter from Hobby Lobby. I thought I remembered seeing that, but I had to hunt for it to find it, as it didn’t just pop out at me!! I don’t remember ever seeing that particular print; it’s certainly appropriate, isn’t it?!
Linda, thanks for the information on Tiny Clothesline. Do you know how long she will be gone? I don’t often buy doll clothes from others unless it’s something I can’t or don’t want to make myself, but I do love to check out what others do so tell your Betsy my Betsy will most likely not be competing with her for clothes from there. Truth is my Betsy usually doesn’t want something until she sees your Betsy wearing it. I usually tell her it’s one of a kind and your Betsy got there first.
Oh, Jeanne….I’m so sorry about your further technical problems, this time with ebay. What a bummer, and after all your work, too. I hope they are able to find your listing again!
Elizabeth, I am blown away by all the detail you have included in this wonderful ensemble. Your daughter must hve been beyond thrilled! What a lovely birthday surprise for her!
I was interested in reading everyone’s memories of playing croquet, from yesterday’s blog. We, too, had a croquet set in the 1950s, and set it up every summer. The whole family played sometimes, and sometimes it was just my brother adn me,of maybe some of our friends. I’m assuming it was probably left in Michigan–given away perhaps–when we moved to Seattle, because I have no memories of it after we got here but I could be wrong.
Had a lovely day today, with our ladies’ Bible study followed by a salad luncheon this morning, and another service with Ken Lynch this evening. I did take a nap in between, though, as I was really tired! Tomorrow it’s just the evening service; I have the rest of the day free. I’m planning to sleep in!!
Arrrgghh!! Typos!! That should be “just my brother AND me, OR maybe some of our friends…”
Elizabeth! I am absolutely astounded! All of this set is so beautiful!
Clearly, you have put a lot of love and care into this. Thank you very much for sending the photos on to Jeanne and sharing with all of us. Gosh, what an incredible result! Obviously you put so much careful time, I know you loved creating this! It is just perfect. Everything. I love Hobby Lobby. I love that you were inspired to paint the horse, wow, just wow, incredible painting! Elizabeth, I am so impressed. …. the clothes! the hats, boots, dresses.
Your daughter is very lucky. What a treasure.. on so many levels, really.
Jeanne, what a horrible ordeal all of this is. Good grief. You are delving into areas here that are… well, places we do not want to go. Annoying. I hope eBay fixes their problem. It is fortunate that you have help, and they do appear to be sympathetic to your concerns.
How is George doing? Is he improving and feeling good?
Life is really keeping us busy. Lately, I feel like I am barely keeping up.
Yes, I am playing the piano – not impressively. Just Beethoven stuff.
I have been sewing a little. Today I believe it supposed to be the last very warm day… for a little while. It was 95 yesterday but not terrible because there was no humidity, and there was a nice breeze. I moved the sprinkler around the lawn all day while doing other chores inside.
I hope all of you have a lovely day. Jeanne, I hope eBay can sort out this unfortunate situation.
Wow, I’m surprised that Jeanne, was able to actually talk to someone at the bay. Sure sounds like a glitch of some kind to me. If that happened to Jeanne, I’ll bet that it has happened to others as well. Is there an online group for Ebay bloopers? I’ll bet that they have the answer. Regardless, I hope that the next try goes well.
What a wonderful set of photos today from Elizabeth. I love seeing everything that she makes. The horse, riding outfits, and wardrobe are amazing. She has that special touch for everything that she imagines.
Since we were talking Ebay bloopers, for awhile now, I’ve found that when I hit a photo that is supposed to enlarge on Jeanne’s blog, it does not. Instead, it goes to an all black back ground scene with the photo a little smaller in the middle of the black and not enlarged at all. Is that what it is supposed to do? There is no way to enlarge it further. Perhaps, there is something I can do with my computer to enlarge it, but I haven’t a clue as to how. Help from Jeanne, please.
And to today’s blooper here, I’m calling it the Revenge of the Weed. Anyway, yesterday it was 90, so I waited for shade in the yard and decided to get in some work time late. I had worked around the water feature a little and cut back a lot of blackberry being very careful and watchful for those yellowjackets. Didn’t see a one. Still more to go there. So, I switched to another area and weeded around my clump of coral bells. At that point, I spied shade down by the raised beds and thought that I’d move down there. Getting up from my rolling stool, I glanced over to the upper beds and saw, horrors, a giant weed in the area that other person had tried to clear but didn’t apparently. The thing was at least three feet tall and in full blossom. Ugh. So, taking my gloves and weed digger, I went after it. The stalk was almost two inches in diameter and prickly. The ground was rock hard, so it was impossible to get out without some effort. I didn’t want to break it off and leave the root. This was a major weed. So, I began digging around the base to loosed it a bit. I was all scrunched over with knees bent and tugging on that weed stalk. Pulling and pulling on it trying to get it loose. I dug deeper around it and continued tugging. At some point, I gave the thing a big pull and the dangerous weed decided to release itself. I apparently, was totally unprepared for this because all I remember is giving the tenacious weed another tug and feeling it come loose. The force of course, caused me to fall backward onto my tush while still clutching that huge weed. It was like watching something in slow motion. A kind of slinky unwinding as I went from crouching to on my tush then slowly unwinding onto my back, shoulders, and finally my head landing in the gravel just beyond the brick bed edging. There I was laid out flat by that darned weed. When I opened my eyes, I could see blue sky above, and I wasn’t in Oz. I hadn’t been knocked out, but must have closed my eyes with some reflex. I still had that darned huge weed with the root intact in my clutches but now it was luxuriating on top of me. I felt no pain, only rage at what had happened. My first thought was total embarassment. If someone had seen me, they would be laughing up a storm. But, there was no one there. Just me laying in the middle of the yard. Even Callie Cat was somewhere in the shade. So, I decided to get up. Slowly, I sat up and grabbed that horrid weed from on top of me and threw it into the yard can. Then I slowly got up. Fortunately, the weed ride was so quick that I didn’t even use the stick out your arm reflex to stop me or I may have broken something. Apparently, my tush took the brunt of the action but I wasn’t hurt at all except my pride. Well, I did get a very slight bump on my head from where I landed in the gravel, but was extremely minor. Then, as I surveyed where the weed had stood, my eyes traveled about three feet to the right and there was another darned weed the same size and variety standing there as if to intimidate me. I didn’t touch it. I think I’ll use the pitchfork on that one. 🙂
Oh Joy 😂 I would NOT have laughed. Weeds, those tall ones, in bloom, are the devil in plant form! Good thing that one went straight into the yard can. I am relieved you did not clunk your head on something harder or pointy. Who knew we needed helmets to put weeds? and maybe some gel butt pads. I wore those when I was a figure skater.
I am not quite sure why your computer is not enlarging pictures.
It is working for me.
you can always try quitting the window, and reopening it?
Good to know that the non enlarging is my problem and not Jeanne’s. She has enough to worry about. And no helmet or pads here. Way too hot today to even be out for long. 🙂
Joy, maybe you should give the pitchfork to the Other Person? I meant for him to use the pitchfork on the weed, not for you to use it on him, although you might think he deserves it for leaving those huge weeds to you!!
I definitely agree on the pitchfork. I’ll tell other person, but doubt that he will comply. 🙂
Now that I know you weren’t seriously hurt I can feel free to roll on the floor laughing about your weed experience. I’ve had some of the same experience but remained on my feet by using some fancy footwork to remain so. I’m sure anyone seeing it would have found it quite funny. I wouldn’t want to see it in a video. As to the photo problem, try this. See if when you right click on the picture you get a menu one of which is “more tools”. When you click on that you will get “magnify image”. That should enlarge the image and then on the bottom will be some “buttons” and when you click on the left one you can move around in your enlarged picture which is great for checking out little things. Hopefully you can do this. I have found it doesn’t always work on other things but it does work on the pictures Jeanne posts.
Barbara, that helped. I had no luck with right click as I don’t appear to have magnify the image there. But, I tried the three dots at the top right and found a way to zoom, so that worked. Guess I should set up my new computer.
Tks on the Revenge of the Weed.
Jeanne, what problems you have had, I hope you can get it all fixed soon. Your ebay’s are always so lovely.
Thank you for showing us Elizabeth’s fabulous work, just amazing!
Elizabeth!!! you are so amazing, how you made the horses and their saddles and reins, the outfits, so fabulous. I loved playing with dolls all the time I was growing up, also loved horses and had many little glass ones on a shelf, read horse books, drew horses. I still love ready horse book and movies. I would have LOVED what you have made. I know your daughter would be over the moon.!
Thank you Jeanne, for sharing the Siblie doll and her items with your readers! And a huge thank you to the sofa sisters for the many comments about the set! I loved working on it and the whole project kept me motivated to keep sewing and crafting daily, so I would be able to mail it to my daughter in time for her May Birthday.
Jeanne….I can’t imagine your frustration over the Ebay issue. at least you were able to reach a real person for customer service…so often I have found myself on the phone for 30 minutes or so, in front of my online site, reaching only “virtual assistants”, before being linked to a real person, and sometimes even they need to contact tech support. I have often wondered how detailed is the customer service person’s training, when together, we still can’t locate something or get it to work like it should.
I think in our “push-button, click here” society, I just want it to “work” without any glitches or major time spent on trying to figure it all out! Patience is the key as I try to maintain my smile and composure, even over the phone! There is nothing like the relief of working with a “real person”, and I wonder how well AI will be able to respond when we might only have them to reach out to for help in the future.
And Joy, your Revenge of the Weed episode was so well-written and has made my day in your re-telling of the story! I can so relate, having fallen in the living room and couldn’t figure out how to get up off of the floor, and recently almost toppled over in the front garden, summersault style, while refilling the small water bird-bowl on the ground! My garden slants downward a little and I could tell I was leaning too far forward and still moving forward into what would have had me go head over feet onto the lawn….and I didn’t want to fall onto my knees, so instead one knee went completely into the trimmed-back palm-like bush and with every muscle I could use in my legs and back, managed to lean back and stand upright. Whew! All I could think of was I’d hoped none of my neighbors were watching from their front windows!
Landing completely flat on the ground was not desirable since we still have fire ant mounds out there in the garden….we managed to kill off two mounds and now another one has popped up on the garden area on the other side of the front steps. My youngest daughter and her hubby gave me a large bird bath, a designed glass bowl on a metal base for Mother’s Day, and now I just rinse and fill it from the hose….no more bending over! Still need to tackle weeds though, but not until I’m sure the fire ant mounds are gone….they seem to be really bad this year.
Must go fill the bird feeder that is on a short shepherd’s hook in the garden area, but it is not near the fire ant mounds. The news is predicting rain and more rain, off and on, for the next several days….the gray skies make me think of Indiana days, as it is usually sunny and breezy here in the middle of Texas! My art room window is open for fresh air and it’s a good time to sew!
Elizabeth, try dematiaceous earth to get rid of fire ants. From Wikipedia: “Of value as an insecticide because of its abrasive and physico-sorptive properties. The fine powder adsorbs lipids from the waxy outer layer of the exoskeletons of many species of insects—which layer acts as a barrier that resists the loss of water vapor from the insect’s body. Damaging the layer increases the evaporation of water from their bodies, so that they dehydrate, often fatally.”
I’ve tried it and it really works and is not harmful to anything else.
Elizabeth, your photos were wonderful, your work is exquisite. I am completely ‘gobsmacked’ at the detail and the amount of time you put into the whole outfit, but the saddle in particular. Just wonderful
Tks on my weed’s revenge. I’m about to go out and continue working. Wish me luck. 🙂 So glad that you now have a much easier to fill birdbath. We have two, but we don’t have many birds anymore due to the crows and Callie Cat. Makes me sad as we used to have so many. Please take it easy on those tumbles as I wouldn’t want to see the creative imaginative one, you, injured.
Computers can definitely be a joy and a curse at the same time. When everything is going well life is good but when something goes awry, at least for me, life can become full of frustration. If you have no clue what the problem is and neither does anyone else, you can tear your hair out. We have a permanent subscription to the Geek Squad and, especially in David’s case, he uses it a lot. He’s still stuck back in the MS/DOS era and Windows has always overwhelmed him so he doesn’t even try to fix anything himself. He just calls the Geek Squad and they figure it out for him. It’s been worth the money because when he suffers from computer frustration he’s a bit of a struggle to deal with.
Anne’s mention of the fools messing with the swings at the park made me think of another thing some children seem to think is funny but isn’t a bit. Locking all the stall doors in the bathroom and then crawling out underneath. Unfortunately an older person cannot crawl back in to unlock them so you have to find a child to do it for you.
Elizabeth your creativity is wonderful. I love the saddle and all the outfits. I can’t believe how much you manage to accomplish. What a lucky family you have.
Barbara, fortunately in this country we don’t have gaps at the bottom of the toilet stalls. There is a small gap but only a very young child (think small toddler) would be able to get under it and they wouldn’t be able to manage the locks. We did have one very distressing case though. At a company Christmas fancy dress party one guy got very drunk and thought it would be amusing to reach under the gap and set light to his friend’s fancy dress grass skirt. The poor guy burned to death while his friend had to listen to his screams. I think I heard that after his prison sentence for manslaughter he visited schools to talk about alcohol and how you can do terrible things under the influence.
Jeanne, I hope you get your problems with EBay sorted, it must be so frustrating.
We are supposed to be getting 20C today, it is already 14C and it is only 8.20am. We had a gorgeous sunrise this morning which might mean rain this morning, as long as we can get the washing dry! I really might have to invest in a dryer this year, yesterday was sunny but no wind and the washing just didn’t dry.
To go back to the croquet, I think it was seen as an ‘upper class’ game because working class people very rarely had gardens, maybe just a yard. (‘Yard’ in Uk is quite different to a ‘yard in US, It is a small, paved area at the back of the house). This was in the 50’s remember, things have changed a lot since then though gardens are still pretty small for most people but at least they usually have one.
It is our guild meeting today so have to get ready.
Have a wonderful day everyone
Around here, I would be lost without a dryer. Makes life so much easier. Maybe some store might have a program for those in our age range to get a deal on one? Hope so.